Direct provision residents with jobs should pay rent, says Eamon Ryan

Residents of direct provision centres who have secured asylum status and jobs should pay the State rent for their accommodation, Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has said.

The Irish Times has reported the Government is considering charging rent or fees to some people who continue living long-term in direct provision centres to find space for Ukrainian refugees.

A group of senior officials will this week finalise a list of options in relation to how the State will manage the humanitarian crisis in the longer term and this paper will be discussed at a Cabinet committee on Monday October 24th.

It is understood the Cabinet committee will discuss a proposal to ask people in direct provision to pay rent or fees if they are working and have been in the direct provision centre for several years. Officials are teasing out whether creating a landlord-tenant relationship would be feasible, or whether it would make more sense to charge a fee for services.

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There are more than 11,000 people living in direct provision, with a small number having been resident for longer than seven years.

Speaking at an event in Tallaght on Monday Mr Ryan said he believed it was appropriate to charge rent to certain residents of these centres.

“There are some 4,000 people who now have full status - they are not ‘in’ direct provision, but they are remaining in the same accommodation, and in those circumstances should they be charged? I believe they should.”

[ Long-term direct provision residents could be charged rent or fees under proposals ]

He said there were people who had passed through the asylum process and were now working, but due to a variety of circumstances, had not left their original accommodation.

“If someone is working, and they are no longer in the asylum process, and they have got their full status, I’d imagine it’s in circumstances like that the Government would be considering some payment contribution, and I don’t think that’s inappropriate.”

He said consideration of such measures was necessary at a time of great pressure for housing.

[ State nearing limit of its ability to house Ukrainian refugees and other asylum-seekers ]

“We have got a huge challenge… at this moment in time in terms of finding accommodation, for both displaced people from Ukraine and also international protocol refugees, as well as our own people,” he said.

“We are going to have to make difficult choices and difficult decisions in Government to accommodate the people we need to accommodate. We are really in a very tight place now in terms of not having obvious easy alternative accommodation places available and in those circumstances that sort of decision [to charge rent] is appropriate.”

Taoiseach Micheál Martin later insisted there are no firm proposals to consider charging people working full-time and living in direct provision rent.

Asked during a visit to Belfast if he supported the idea, Mr Martin said: “There are a range of options that may come forward. It’s about having some degree of relative equity about how different refugees are treated in different settings. No clear proposals have come forward yet in relation to that”.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien declined to be drawn on the proposals when asked about them in Dublin on Monday morning.

“Obviously international protection accommodation services falls under my colleague Roderic O’Gorman. Obviously I’ll assess any proposals that come forward; we will as a collective. I haven’t seen any proposals in that space yet,” he said.